Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to an auxiliary battery for an electric vehicle, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for controlling recharging of an auxiliary battery for a vehicle in association with reprogramming of an electronic control unit (ECU).
Discussion of the Related Art
In accordance with the development of vehicles and computers, electronic control units (ECUs) function to control numerous parts of vehicles, for example, a driving system, a braking system, a steering system, etc., in addition to control of an automatic transmission. In such an ECU, software having a version corresponding to the time of shipment of the vehicle is stored. The software of the ECU should be reprogrammed with an updated version of the software whenever a new version of the software is developed, in order to eliminate software errors generated in the ECU, and to use improved functions associated with the updated software.
Meanwhile, diagnostic devices (e.g., reprogramming devices) deal with possibility of reprogramming failure caused by a low voltage during reprogramming of the software when capacity of the associated vehicle is insufficient. Worse, the ECU can be damaged during reprogramming, causing failure to occur. In this case, replacement of the ECU may be required. Therefore, reprogramming of the ECU should be allowed only when the vehicle has an environment in which software of the ECU is reprogrammable without failure.
In conventional cases, reprogramming of the ECU is recommended to be performed only when a charger has been connected to the battery of the vehicle. However, the operator may disregard such recommendation. Meanwhile, some batteries may become damaged due to over-current when reprogramming is performed after connection of a charger. In addition, when discharging of a battery is carried out for an extended period of time due to reprogramming performed at a low state of charge (SOC) of the battery, there may be a problem of early degradation of the battery.